TL;DR: People see a multi-dimensional CV. I see a tool kit collected for my path: research, design, programs, edtech, fintech and branding each taught me something Africa's small businesses need, and none of it would have come from niching down.
In 2012, I started being called the "Designer". I had a diploma in computer operations and had just recreated a Star Lager can in 3D from a blank canvas on CorelDraw. A very specific flex then. Fourteen years later I'm still Designer. Now designing the market researches, the brand, the strategy, the marketing and the product.
The CV nobody would design on purpose
My AI proxy who responds to queries on my behalf says that's a special kind of restlessness. People see a multi-dimensional CV, but I see a tool kit collected for my path.
Let's trail back a bit: You would see me working as a print designer for a company, then personal gigs. My first gig paid N350k in 2018. The next paid N250k. Welcome to the designer-'CEO' era.
At the Abia State Diaspora Commission I helped set up a children's specialist hospital working as the hands-on Project Manager, supported supplies to 100+ primary health centres. Just before it, I had helped deliver the first Abians in Diaspora Summit to name a few.
Then, I rebranded an edtech, helped raise a small angel cheque and watched our ₦2B-a-session model flop.
Then, I co-founded a fintech out of a cooperative and designed its trust and credit systems.
Then, I handled 30+ projects through Eucheria Hub. Now I'm building Esuite.
Let's analyse other parts a bit
Agriculture taught me about seasons, and the gift of patience. That in that waiting, there's fruiting.
ADCOM exposed the human species. I ran a listening workshop for 100 civil servants and realised people mostly pretend to be polite depending on the perceived outcome of that communication.
From my brand designs and strategy consultations with MSMEs - on the side ask a business owner how sales are going and the answer is "We dey manage." Ask how much is in the account and? Either they exaggerate the amount, or they tell you how they're starving. You needed to decipher the nuanced middle.
On the side of branding, most would learn the brutal way that looking credible is a survival skill. E.g. my mother made soybeans powder. It tasted good and it was nutritious. It lost a nutrition deal because it wasn't shelf-worthy. And no one told her what to fix. I was barely a teen, but I never forgot it. Most African small businesses don't fail because they're bad at their product core. They fail at the parts people judge without a second chance: how to look trustworthy.
From the strategy and marketing side, you'll find that data says no politely, while markets say no rudely. Lol! At the edtech, we charged students ₦1,000 per course per semester. Sounds small. We ran an A/B test and the students said no anyway. So we pivoted to lecturers, then to institutions. That model, worth about ₦2B a session, also failed (tho the website still runs). This is why Esuite has no freemium. I didn't learn the art of giving a business for free, save for my charity initiatives. To many, free often reads as "not serious" or "there's a catch". We'd rather earn a small payment and a real commitment than collect a million sign-ups who never come back.